Wooden pallets are used to transport a variety of bulk goods and equipment as required in manufacturing and warehousing operations. In high volume industries, pallet pools provide a lower total industry cost than one-way pallets. The current assignee of the present invention recognizes the benefits of pooled pallets, and currently has over several hundred million pallets that are pooled each year.
Conventional wood pallets include a base layer and a cargo layer separated therefrom by support blocks. The support blocks form a gap between the base and cargo layers for receiving a lifting member. Traditionally, the base and cargo layers respectively have end deck boards assembled on connector boards that run the full length or width of the pallet.
As one might expect, wooden pallets are subject to damage in use that occurs from handling with forklifts or other like equipment. To move the wooden pallets with cargo thereon, forklift tines from a forklift, for example, are inserted into the gap between the base and cargo layers. If the forklift tines are not properly aligned within the gap, they may crash into the support blocks or into the end deck boards or connector boards in the base or cargo layers. Impacts such as this weaken the pallet and greatly shorten the life cycle of the pallet, thereby causing the pallet to be repaired more frequently and/or removed from service before its anticipated life cycle has been reached.
Consequently, there is a need to test the life cycle of a pallet. This is particularly helpful when design changes are being made to a pallet. If the design changes are determined to increase the life cycle of the pallet, then the redesigned pallets may be inserted into the pallet pool. The difficulty in simulating the life cycle of a pallet is to be able to repeatedly strike the pallet in a precise location with a predetermined amount of energy. In addition, if the pallet is not square prior to impact, or if the pallet is not repositioned prior to receiving another impact, then the amount of energy striking the pallet varies. This degrades the accuracy of the life cycle testing of the pallet.